have fallen
more than once. And at times I have almost died of mortification. But
everybody is so amiable and patient, so polite, so gay about my
mistakes. I am beginning to love the French. And I am learning so
much! I had no idea what a capacity I had for learning things. But
then, with Princess Naia, and with my kind and patient teachers and my
golden opportunities, even a very stupid girl must learn _something_.
And I am not really very stupid; I've discovered that. On the
contrary, I really seem to learn quite rapidly; and all that annoys me
is that there is so much to learn and the days are not long enough, so
anxious am I, so ambitious, so determined to get out of this wonderful
opportunity everything I possibly can extract.

I have lived in these few months more years than my own age adds up! I
am growing old and wise very fast. Please hasten to write to me before
I have grown so old that you would not recognize me if you met me.

Your friend,
Ruhannah.

* * * * *

The letter flattered him. He was rather glad he had once kissed the
girl who could write such a letter.

He happened to be engaged, at that time, in drawing several
illustrations for a paper called the _Midweek Magazine_. There was a
heroine, of course, in the story he was illustrating. And, from
memory, and in spite of the model posing for him, he made the face
like the face of Ruhannah Carew.

But the days passed, and he did not reply to her letter. Then there
came still another letter from her:

Why don't you write me just one line? Have you _really_ forgotten me?
You'd like me if you knew me now, I think. I am really quite grown up.
And I am _so_ happy!

The Princess is simply adorable. Always we are busy, Princess Naia and
I; and now, since I have laid aside mourning, we go to concerts; we go
to plays; we have been six times to the opera, and as many more to the
Theatre Francais; we have been to the Louvre and the Luxembourg many
times; to St. Cloud, Versailles, Fontainebleau.

Always, when my studies are over, we do something interesting; and I
am beginning to know Paris, and to care for it with real affection; to
feel secure and happy and at home in this dear, glittering,
silvery-grey city--full of naked trees and bridges and palaces. And,
sometimes when I feel homesick, and lonely,